Corporate Power and the Environment

The Political Economy of U.S. Environmental Policy

George A. Gonzalez

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Environmental policy is broadly viewed as an oasis of democracy, unspoiled by crass capitalism and undominated by corporate interests. This book counters that view. The focus of Corporate Power and the Environment focuses on how U.S. economic elites—corporate decisionmakers and other individuals of substantial wealth—shape the content and implementation of U.S. environmental policy to their economic and political benefit. The author uses the management of the national forests and national parks, as well as wilderness preservation policies and federal clean air policies, as case studies to show corporate power in action in even the 'purest' of policy arenas.« lessmore »

George A. Gonzalez is assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Miami at Coral Gables, and coeditor of Flashpoints in Environmental Policymaking: Controversies in Achieving Sustainability.

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The Policymaking Process Chapter 3 Practical Forestry and the U.S. Forest Service Chapter 4 The Political Economy of the National Park System Chapter 5 Wilderness Preservation Policy: The Cases of Yosemite Park and Jackson Hole Chapter 6 Anatomy of a Wilderness Controversy: The Creation of Redwood National Park Chapter 7 The Legislative Process and the Clean Air Act of 1990 Chapter 8 Conclusion: Political Power and the Environment Chapter 9 Bibliography

Refreshing in its unusual criticism of main stream pluralist assumptions about environmental politics and policy.....—

Lucid and well-written.....—

Gonzalez's examples are fascinating and informative.....—

Corporate Power and the Environment makes for very interesting reading due to its extensive use of congressional records, newspaper accounts, memoirs, personal correspondence, and other primary materials.....—

This study does succeed in several important respects. Its presentation of both theoretical and historical material is clear, making the book suitable for use as a companion text in undergraduate public policy or environmental policy classes. It offers awealth of information about the formation of policy regimes in a variety of environmental and natural resource policy arenas, which, taken together, mount a persuasive case that environmental policy is no oasis of democracy, free from corporate influence. Of particular importance is its discussion of the effect of policy-planning networks on environmental policy formation. This is a subject that has received scant attention in previous literature and is justly emphasized here...—